The aim of this review was to determine whether male football players meet dietary recommendations according to a UEFA expert group statement and to identify priority areas for dietetic intervention, including training periodization and field position. A database search of PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCO and Scopus was performed. To be included within the final review, articles were required to provide a dietary intake assessment of professional and semi-professional football players. A total of 17 studies met the full eligibility criteria. Several studies showed insufficient energy and carbohydrate intake compared to the recommendations. A majority of athletes consume adequate protein and fat intakes compared to the recommendations. In addition, several studies showed the insufficient intake of vitamins and minerals. This systematic review showed that football players do not meet the nutritional recommendations according to the UEFA expert group statement. Future research should be focused on how to apply nutritional recommendations specific for athletes in accordance with training periodization and positions on the field.

Background Scientific literature provides more and more information on compounds supporting fat metabolism. More research is needed to fully characterize the effects of compounds that increase concentration triglycerides. The aim of our study was to test the influence of caffeine and genistein consumption on triglyceride status in athletes.Methods Fourteen Polish adult sub-elite soccer players (23.1 ± 2.1 years; 179.6 ± 8.5 cm; 74.1 ± 8.5 kg; 12.4 ± 3.8% body fat) were accepted for research. The athletes for this randomized, double-blind study were joining fasted. After consuming a standardized milk meal, participants took caffeine (400 mg), genistein (120 mg), or placebo (400 mg of vitamin C). Athletes ate the compound if it saw a sequentially increase and decrease in triglyceride concentration after eating the test meal. Participants had their glucose levels measured every 15 minutes with a glucometer (Accu-Chek Active) and their triglyceride levels with CardioChek PA. The subject was terminating the study when he had sequentially increased and decreased triglyceride concentration after the compound. If no such reaction occurred, measurements were taken for up to 90 minutes. In order to determine statistically significant differences between the variables, non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and U Mann-Whitney tests were used. The significance level of α = 0.05 was adopted for both of these tests. The relationships between the variables were determined using the Spearman R correlation. The correlations were statistically significant at p ≤ 0.100.Results A statistically significant difference was demonstrated between the initial and maximum triglyceride concentration after caffeine consumption compared to placebo (p = 0.049). After consuming caffeine, the athletes had a significant difference in trigliceride concentration at 30 min (p = 0.018) and 60 min (p = 0.036) compared to placebo. In the group taking genistein, only a statistically significant difference was noticed compared to placebo only in 60 min (p = 0.029).Conclusion Our research results show that after acute caffeine and genistein supplementation, triglyceride concentration increase in soccer players.